Frene Ginwala Biography
Frene Noshir Ginwala was a South African journalist and politician. He served as the first Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa from 1994 until 2004. Ginwala was born on April 25, 1932, and passed away on January 12, 2023. She was an essential figure in the process of establishing democracy in South Africa and had a significant impact on the formulation of the Constitution of South Africa.
Early Life And Career
Ginwala was an Indian South African who was born in Johannesburg on April 25, 1932. He was from the Parsi-Indian community in western India. [3]
Ginwala has written several books about different ways to fight against injustice.
Because of her work, international and local institutions and governments have given her awards.
She did a lot to help set up underground escape routes for ANC (African National Congress) members after the Sharpeville massacre and the State of Emergency (SOE) was declared in 1960. She did this by keeping her identity secret. These people included Oliver Tambo, who was the vice president of the ANC, and Yusuf Dadoo, who was a leader of the liberation movement. She also set up places for people who had to stay in the country to stay safe. Ginwala also drove around NIC (Natal Indian Congress) leaders Monty Naicker and J. N. Singh, who were running their organizations from the shadows after avoiding the police. The SOE, which hung over the country for five months, told them to go around the province and get money from secret donors to help families whose breadwinners had been arrested and put in jail. This was to help the families who were left without money because their breadwinners had been arrested.
In the end, she had to leave South Africa at the end of 1960. She, Tambo, and Dadoo set up an ANC office in exile in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika, which was still ruled by the British until December 9, 1961. The regime in Zanzibar was overthrown in 1963. This made it possible for the United Republic of Tanzania to be formed in 1964. Aside from the ANC, she got involved in a wide range of things. She taught future diplomats at Oxford University, where she got her PhD. She also wrote for the BBC and other well-known news organizations in the UK and elsewhere. Frene Ginwala helped set up a communications system in the United Republic of Tanzania, which had just been formed. She became the managing editor of the English-language daily newspapers Standard and Sunday News at the request of President Julius Nyerere. During the whole time she was in exile (she went back to South Africa in 1991), she went all over the world preaching about how terrible apartheid was and how to fight it. Ginwala had degrees from several universities in Africa and other parts of the world. She was a lawyer, a historian, a political scientist, and she had a PhD in philosophy from Oxford University’s Linacre College.
Frene Ginwala was elected to the South African Parliament in 1994, during the country’s first democratic elections. She was chosen as the Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa by parliament after being put forward by the ANC caucus. She held this position from 1994 to 2004.
After she stopped being a speaker, she continued to work for a number of international organizations, such as UN subsidiaries, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal as Chancellor. In April 2005, Ginwala was chosen to be the first chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. At the time, she was one of only four women in South Africa who ran universities.
On September 30, 2007, South African President Thabo Mbeki asked Ginwala to look into whether or not Vusi Pikoli was fit to be National Director of Public Prosecutions.
She decided that Pikoli was a good idea in general, but she criticized the lack of communication between departments. She also said bad things about Advocate Menzi Simelane, who was the Director General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. His testimony was confusing and not based on facts or the law. She also said some harsh things about President Jacob Zuma’s decision to put Simelane in charge of all public prosecutions.
Cause Of Death
She suffered a stroke two weeks prior to her death on January 12th, 2023, which ultimately led to her passing on January 12th, 2023.
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